RNA viruses comprising the Flaviviridae family include at least three distinguishable genera including pestiviruses, flaviviruses, and hepaciviruses (Calisher, et al., J. Gen. Virol., 1993, 70, 37-43). While pestiviruses cause many economically important animal diseases such as bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV), classical swine fever virus (CSFV, hog cholera) and border disease of sheep (BDV), their importance in human disease is less well characterized (Moennig, V., et al., Adv. Vir. Res. 1992, 48, 53-98). Flaviviruses are responsible for important human diseases such as dengue fever and yellow fever while hepaciviruses cause hepatitis C virus infections in humans. Other important viral infections caused by the Flaviviridae family include West Nile virus (WNV) Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), tick-borne encephalitis virus, Junjin virus, Murray Valley encephalitis, St Louis enchaplitis, Omsk hemorrhagic fever virus and Zika virus.
The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the leading cause of chronic liver disease worldwide (Boyer, N. et al. J Hepatol. 32:98-112, 2000) so a significant focus of current antiviral research is directed toward the development of improved methods of treatment of chronic HCV infections in humans (Di Besceglie, A. M. and Bacon, B. R., Scientific American, October: 80-85, (1999); Gordon, C. P., et al., J. Med. Chem. 2005, 48, 1-20; Maradpour, D., et al., Nat. Rev. Micro. 2007, 5(6), 453-463). A number of HCV treatments are reviewed by Dymock et al. in Antiviral Chemistry & Chemotherapy, 11:2; 79-95 (2000). Virologic cures of patients with chronic HCV infection are difficult to achieve because of the prodigious amount of daily virus production in chronically infected patients and the high spontaneous mutability of HCV virus (Neumann, et al., Science 1998, 282, 103-7; Fukimoto, et al., Hepatology, 1996, 24, 1351-4; Domingo, et al., Gene 1985, 40, 1-8; Martell, et al., J. Virol. 1992, 66, 3225-9.
Currently, there are primarily two antiviral compounds, ribavirin, a nucleoside analog, and interferon-alpha (α) (IFN), that are used for the treatment of chronic HCV infections in humans. Ribavirin alone is not effective in reducing viral RNA levels, has significant toxicity, and is known to induce anemia. The combination of IFN and ribavirin has been reported to be effective in the management of chronic hepatitis C (Scott, L. J., et al. Drugs 2002, 62, 507-556) but less than half the patients given this treatment show a persistent benefit. Therefore, there is a need to develop more effective anti-HCV therapies.
The macrocycle sanglifehrin and derivatives are immunomodulatory and bind peptidyl-prolyl cis/trans isomerase (PPlase) cyclophilins in a unique manner (WO 97/02285; WO 98/07743; J. Am. Chem. Soc 2003, 125, 3849-3859; J. Org. Chem. 2000, 65, 9255-9260; Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 1999, 38, 2443-2446). The cyclophilins are peptidyl-prolyl cis/trans isomerases (PPlase) that regulate protein folding in vivo and inhibit hepatitis C virus (Lin et al., WO2006/138507). However, none of the sanglifehrins or their derivatives has become available for human anti-viral therapy. Therefore, there is a continuing need to develop macrocyclic sanglifehrins with anti-Flaviviridae virus activity and particularly anti-HCV activity.